Megan

Both of these pieces of information can be related to Ancient Greek culture.  The right hand object in the picture reminded me of a shield, and specifically of a Greek shield.  Greeks often had shields that were circular, or a shape that was derived from a circle.  Shields and armour were very important in Greek culture because there were always wars going on.  Spartans may be fighting against Athenians, Trojans or Corintians.  Warfare was very common, and Greeks were constantly defending or conquering land.

As I looked into cicadas, I found that the Ancient Greeks can be connected to them as well.  For Greeks, these insects stood for resurrection and immortality.  Part of this has to do with the cicada’s life cycle.  Female cicadas lay their eggs in the twigs of trees.  When the eggs hatch they drop from the tree, and burrow into the ground.  This is where cicadas spend most of their life.  Once they have completed their lives as nymphs they come to the surface and out of the ground for their adult life (Swanson, pars 5-6).  I think it’s easy to see how cicadas can be a symbol of resurrection, especially with their surfacing from the ground.  The symbol of immortality can be connected to the cicada’s constant singing, and also some mythological stories from Ancient Greece.  The story of Tithanus explains how his lover, Dawn granted him immortality.  Tithanus continued to grow older, but never died.  Instead he began to shrink.  Eventually the only thing left of him was a cicada, and his constant crying voice (Egan, par 8).  Stories like this one stress the symbol of cicadas in Greek culture. 

It’s not only myths and folklore stories that use cicadas as a metaphor or important symbol in Ancient Greece.  There are also some well know pieces of Greek literature that show cicadas as metaphors.  These include the likes of Aristotle, Plato and Homer (Egan, pars. 9,18).  In fact, Homer’s poem The Iliad can connect the both pieces of information- cicadas and the shield- very nicely into Greek culture. 

The Iliad is a story centred around the Trojan War, which easily connects it to the “shield” in the picture.  Trojan and Spartan soldiers at war in the poem are armed with their shields and weapons, ready for a fight.  Knowing that cicadas symbolize immortality, it makes sense that they can be brought up easily as metaphors in a story about war, such as The Iliad.  The symbol of immortality in warfare is a strong one, and in a place with so many battles going on such as Greece it must have been important.  By looking at one aspect of Greek culture, such as warfare, it is possible to take more out of this than simply a connection.  These two pieces of information not only have Ancient Greek culture in common, but they can be intertwined as well.  These two pieces of information may seem totally separate at first, but once a connection is made it becomes clear that the two are much more deeply related than they appear.

Works Cited

Egan, Rory B. “Cicada in Ancient Greece.” Bugbios.  Nov. 1994. 17 Sept. 2008.  <http://www.               insects.org/ced3/cicada_ancgrcult.html>

Swanson, Diane. “Cicadas.” Bugbeat. 17 Sept. 2008. <http://www.yesmag.ca/bugbeat/bugs.php?id          =9>